This is better than AOTY for me. It's one of my favorite records of the past five or so years. Hoping for a Hot Mulligan/Arm's Length tour in 2023.
There are parts of this, particularly of Playing Mercy, where his delivery reminds me of The Jealous Sound and it makes me so happy.
Everything Nice still hits me harder than this new release. I really like the new album and I just think it leans more towards sounding like blink than I’d like. I’m gonna binge it for awhile cuz it sounds rich and dense.
Other new emo and emo-adjacent albums this year haven't really done a lot for me. Thinking Caracara, Anxious, if you wanted to stretch and include Wild Pink. All good albums but not ones I have felt an urge to return to. This is the one. First emo album I've gotten into since Tree River (unless you count The Wonder Years - speaking of whom the production here is not dissimilar to the new TWY which is a huge compliment particularly for a relatively new band without a big budget).
Have you checked out proper., oso oso, Joyce Manor, Pool Kids, Beach Bunny, Oceanator, and Prince Daddy & the Hyena? All my favorite emo albums this year
Thanks for the recs! Of those I've heard: Oso oso - couldn't get into this one like I could Basking. I get the backstory etc but the result is just not for me. Chorus of Pensacola is a real earworm though. Joyce Manor - like Don't Try and Gotta Let It Go a lot, the rest I can't really recall. Pool Kids - my fav of this list, especially the song Arm's Length. Prince Daddy - liked this a decent amount too although preferred the album before. El Dorado is probably my fav. All of these are decent to really good, but this new Arm's Length has connected for me in a way those have not. I'll check out the rest soon, thanks again!
I really liked this but the line in Dirge-- 'you can hardly hear the ocean in the shell you've grown to be' wrecked me
to clarify, there’s something derivative of their last EP going on & some Hotelier sounds & generic pop punk on this that waters down what they were doing before. I also hear Mark Hoppus style singing at different points, several times throughout the album. edit: like the voice at the beginning of Formative Age…I hear some Mark in therr playing mercy at 1:14…that’s blink sounding to me In loving memory at 0:26 & 1:18
I hear literally no Blink in this ngl. I think this is fantastic and it's growing still. Object Permanence, Tough Love, Formative Age, Playing Mercy, and In Loving Memory are my favourites, although I still think Garamond and No Sleep are their best individual songs.
Agreed that there are some clunky / skeptical lines that I honestly let pass because the album is so fucking good. for me, the line “the cloud in your head, is changing the weather” has really been hitting me the last day or so. Love that line.
I think this albums reminds me of Home era The Hotelier crossed with World Pushed Back era Have Mercy. And that is absolutely no bad thing.
I keep forgetting to make note of it, but I swear this band does something interesting where the song titles are lyrics in songs that are NOT the titles. Like, there’s a lyric about muscle memory but I don’t think it’s in the song “Muscle Memory” and same with “Family and Friends” but maybe I’m totally wrong and those are in the songs since Object Permanence and Everything As I Knew It have those lyrics in the specific songs.